so many more than just one
by beyond-the-twilight
Summary: He believes in parallel universes and multiple Beck's and he just knows that every Beck in every universe loves Jade West because there's simply no other way / or – three of the many universes where Beck loves Jade.


**A/N: So, I'm currently obsessed with Bade and you can expect to read a lot more Bade stories from me in the future. **

**Disclaimer: I really don't own any of the shows I write about. If I owned Victorious, Beck and Jade would still be together or Jade and Andre would be together... and Cat would actually be Bade's daughter from the future. **

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><p>1.<p>

He's Beck and she's Jade and they're not supposed to get along.

She's _fire _and everything burns around her. She sets the world alight with her eyes and her words pierce at your skin and people run away from her in tears because she's Jade West and that's the way the world works.

He's _ice _and the girls flock to his side (he tries not to notice that they run from her to him because that's just too damn sad) and he just has to smile and brush his fingers through his hair to get whatever he wants. He's cool, calm and collected and he's the most popular boy in school and that's that.

And everyone tells him that fire and ice aren't supposed to go together and he tries to listen but he can't stop his eyes from seeking her out; can't stop watching her and imagining what it would feel like to thread his fingers through hers and become a united force – to stop being Beck and Jade and become _BeckandJade. _

So he ignores what they say and walks up to her with his trademark smirk stretched across his face and he asks her if she wants to go get a coffee and tries to pretend that his heart isn't pounding and his hands aren't clammy.

She says no but he doesn't give up easily because lately he's felt like he's a little too cool and he needs someone to warm him up and she's the only one he wants to do the job. He asks again and again until she caves and says yes because she's tired of him constantly pestering her.

He has to wait four dates before he's allowed to hold her hand and kiss her softly goodnight but the wait is worth is and he doesn't feel like he's frozen anymore. He feels _alive _and _warm _and _passionate _and he knows that everyone else was wrong. Fire and ice do go together because he can't imagine being with anyone but Jade.

And it's like that for two years. She's fire and she sets him alight and he feels like he could conquer the world because she makes him want to live. And because he's ice, he cools her down and makes her a little more tolerant and yes, they argue and fight because they're two extremes and together they're _explosive. _

One day though, he begins to realize that Jade's fire is a little too strong and she's melting through him and he's _burningburningburning. _

So he doesn't open the door and he listens as she walks away and he tries to pretend that _BeckandJade _never existed and damn, if that isn't the hardest thing he's ever had to do.

He doesn't know how to be just Beck; he doesn't know how to be the person he was before; doesn't know how to return to simply being ice because even though Jade burned him, she also changed him and he doesn't know who he is anymore.

But he plasters his smirk across his face and pretends like it's not killing him to be just Beck and he slowly learns to become his own person again and nods when people tell him that they're so sorry and that it's not his fault that fire and ice simply don't go together.

And he watches her graduate with a heavy heart because he knows that this is the last time that he'll ever see her (apart from when her face graces the magazines because she's going to be a star) and he wishes that he had gone back to her because he misses the burn; misses the feeling only Jade can evoke in him.

Instead, he claps with his friends and watches as she walks across the stage and shakes hands with the principal. He doesn't go to the airport to say goodbye because he doesn't think he could survive that and he gets on with his life and pretends that he was never in love with her.

But sometimes, when he's alone at night, he wonders if she misses him too and if she wishes she had fought a little harder and refused to let him break up with her because even now, after all this time, he still loves her.

Because _fireandice _are the perfect match; because _BeckandJade _were supposed to be together.

2.

They're friends and that's all.

He's cocky and overconfident, like he's already famous and ready to take over the world. She's withdrawn and a little distant from everyone, refusing to talk unless she's directly spoken to.

He seems to be the exception because they sit next to each other in history and although she never actually talks to him, she has no problems with writing notes and he slowly learns all about this mysterious girl through her handwriting and the sloping curves of her letters.

He thinks that she's beautiful and unique and that her handwriting kind of looks like a child's but that's all. He doesn't think anything else because he's handsome and he knows it and all the girls in the school want to date him. He has other girls to romance and other girls that are clamouring for his attention – ones that he doesn't have to work hard for – and he's always been the kind of guy that took the easy way out.

So, they're friends and that's that. Sometimes he thinks that she's the best friend he's ever had and he wishes that she would stop writing him notes and just open her mouth and _speak. _

Then one day, he hears her sing and everything changes.

He's never heard her voice and now he hears her belting out a song on the stage and he can't get her out of his mind. When she's singing, she's the most beautiful girl in the world and she gets this little smile stretched across her face and he just wants to kiss her until her lips are bruised.

He settles for leaving things in her locker each morning.

Sometimes, it's coffee and other times it's breakfast because her stomach always growls in history and she's mentioned a couple of times that she always forgets to eat in the morning. His best friend laughs at him and calls him a dork but he doesn't care because sometimes he gets to see the little unsure smile that flickers across her lips when she sees the little gift and that's worth all the teasing.

He plots and schemes and tries to think of the perfect way to ask her out because after all the notes and the gifts, it has to be absolutely _incredible. _It has to be enough to make her gasp and talk to him for the first time so he spends hours and hours working out just how to do this.

But she's Jade and even though they've never talked, he knows that she's impatient. He should have realized that she would have put the pieces together and realized who was leaving her little gifts in her locker and he should have known that she would be too impatient to wait for the plan to unfold.

So, he's at his locker on a Tuesday morning and she walks up to him and he can't wipe the smile off his face because he'll never get tired of seeing her and she opens her mouth and his breath sort of catches in his throat and he swears he's never heard anything more perfect in his life.

"I'm Jade", she tells him even though he already knows but he shakes her outstretched hand and introduces himself too, trying to hide the massive smile on his face as she talks to him. She's silent for a moment but then she smirks and his heart races a little as he looks at her. "Are you ever going to ask me out on a date?"

(And her first two words to him – 'I'm Jade' – remain the most perfect thing he's ever heard until six months later when she tells him that she loves him).

He's the one that can't find his words so he just nods and she chuckles and he knows right then and there that he's in danger of falling in love with this girl but he can't bring himself to care.

So they go out on Friday and he listens in awe as she finally talks to him and he realizes that he probably looks a little stupid and ridiculous but he doesn't care because he's on a date with Jade West and that's all that really matters to him right now.

And she agrees to a second date but when he goes to talk to her in history, she hisses for him to be quiet and slides him a note and he's pleased when he realizes that passing notes has become their thing because she's only ever comfortable talking around him, not around the rest of the people that she hates at the school.

He really has no problem with it. In fact, he likes the way that her voice remains this little secret between the two of them. It's romantic and it seems to fit them and besides, he likes being able to keep the messages they write so that he can remember all this.

He's not planning on telling her just yet but he's started decorating one of his walls with all her little messages and it may be the best thing he's ever done.

3.

He's Beck and she's Jade and they're not even friends. Not really.

They know each other because everyone knows him – he's the most popular boy in school – and everyone fears her – she's a little too intimidating – but that's as far as their friendship goes.

She's been dating his best friend Andre for almost a year now and he's been dating her arch-enemy Tori for about seven months and sometimes they hang out in a group of four because that's what is expected of them but he doesn't _know _her.

He doesn't really want to either.

But then Andre goes away for the weekend and he needs help with an assignment and Tori's out for dinner with her family so he calls Jade and begs her to come over and help him with this otherwise he's going to fail and they'll kick him out of school and he'll be stuck working in a fast food joint for the rest of his life and that's going to _ruin _his hair.

She laughs – and his heart stops a little at the sound – and calls him overdramatic and idiotic but she promises that she's on her way over as she hangs up the phone.

And she keeps her word and he aces the assignment – seriously, highest mark in the class – and he never tells Tori that he spent the night with Jade doing homework and watching crappy old movies and whispering ghost stories until it was 1am and it was too late for her to drive home so she slept in his bed and he slept on the couch.

He doesn't think she tells Andre either and it makes him feel special to share a secret with her because behind the dark clothes, she's a truly incredible person and he hates that he didn't get to know her sooner.

He starts calling her more and more often to do homework together and he buys her coffee in the morning and one day, when they're all eating lunch together, he accidently calls her babe and Jade, Tori and Andre all look at him like he's just grown another head and he laughs it off but her eyes narrow and she looks at him like there's something she doesn't quite understand.

He calls her but her mobile is turned off so he stalks her page on TheSlap but she hasn't updated and he gets a little angry because he thinks that she's avoiding him after he called her babe at lunch.

They're supposed to be _friends _yet she's acting cold and distant and yeah, she's acted this way before but never towards him (or Andre, his mind reminds him, rubbing in the fact that he's not the only one who has seen this other side of Jade).

So he goes to her house and her dad lets him in and he heads up the stairs and knocks on her bedroom door and waits for a few seconds before opening the door himself and walking in. She couldn't hear him because she's got her earphones on and she's dancing around the room in just her underwear and his eyes widen comically because she's _gorgeous _and she looks so alive and free.

But then he sees a picture of Andre and Jade stuck on the wall and he looks around and notices that it's the only photo she has up and he turns and walks away because no matter how much he wants her, she's not _his. _

She belongs to his best friend and he can't do that to Andre and even if he likes (_loves_) her, he can't do anything about it.

(And it sucks that he'll never get to hold her hand or kiss her or listen to her sing but that's just the way that it has to be).

So if he needs help with an assignment, he calls in the morning so that she doesn't have to stay over. He stops bring her coffee because that's a boyfriend thing to do and they're just friends. He returns the pair of scissors he bought her as a thank you gift for helping him with yet another piece of homework and he makes sure that he never, _ever _calls her babe again.

And if she notices the changes, she doesn't say anything and he thinks that this is her way of letting him down easy because of course she knows about his feelings (she knows _everything_) but she's still with Andre and she's never spoken to him about it and... he loves her even more for being so gentle with her rejection.

So they stay friends and he pretends that he loves Tori because the popular boy is always supposed to date the popular girl and he slowly grows to resent Andre for having everything that he wants.

But the only time he shows his love for her is when she's on stage, singing her heart out or becoming another character completely. He sits in the dark, surrounded by hundreds of other people that can't quite make out the look on his face, and he lets all of his emotions flicker across his face.

And when she comes out to take a bow, he jumps to his feet and claps the loudest because that's the only time he gets to show that he loves her. Andre can bring her flowers backstage and take her out for dinner afterwards but he only gets this moment...

... that's all he'll ever get.

(_Sometime, she looks right at him during those moments and his heart pounds loudly and he smiles at her and he thinks_ pleasepleaseplease_ but then she looks away and the moment is gone)_


End file.
